Recipes and news from the makers of Zest Recipe Manager

The Recipe

My little balcony herb garden has been going strong over the autumn, I’m sure in part due to the continued warm weather. The only problem is pests – aphids invading the basil and caterpillers munching on my sage! It was getting to the point where I think the caterpillers had used more sage than I, something I had to remedy. Enter Neil Perry’s Chicken with Olives and Sage recipe from a recent Good Weekend. Perfect!

Neil Perry’s vs My Effort

The Tweaks

This is a pretty simple recipe, and my changes were minimal. As you can see above I was using huge chicken marylands, including the spine and tail, as they are sold this way at my local markets. I was happy to leave them intact like this for cooking (because bones = flavour), but it did make them awkward to work with! My one deliberate change was selecting pitted olives from my favourite market supplier.

The Verdict

This recipe is serious bang-for-buck in terms of both visual appeal and flavour compared to the effort involved. There are only a few ingredients, so it’s simple to put together, but I’d have no hesitation serving something looking like this to a crowd! Sometimes simplicity is best. The only issue I had was an excess of oil/fat in the sauce. Although I roughly trimmed excess skin and fat from my marylands, and reduced the oil compared to the recipe, I still had to skim oil before reducing my sauce. Next time I’d reduce the oil even more — down to just enough for browning the chicken well. As a final note I’d advise care with seasoning, just keep in mind the olives are very salty (for this reason I added no extra salt to the sauce at the end, and it was a wise omission).

Thanks to the Neil Perry and the Good Weekend for a tasty recipe simple enough for a weeknight yet impressive enough for guests!

Buerre blanc is a classic French sauce made with reduced white wine/vinegar and (as with so many French recipes!) a whole load of butter. The base recipe is so simple it’s easy to play with the flavours, you just need to be careful not to add something that will make the sauce split. To pair well with white fish, in this case I’ve toned down the butter a little, added lemon juice and the aniseed edge of tarragon. The result is a rich yet fresh sauce that lifts an otherwise simple dish to something mouth-watering.

Lemon and Tarragon Buerre Blanc

Recipe Type: Sauce

Cuisine: French

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 4

A fresh twist on a classic French sauce.

Ingredients

150ml white wine

Juice of 1 lemon (about 80ml)

6 strips lemon zest

Good handful of tarragon leaves, bruised

1 shallot, diced

140g butter, diced into 1.5cm cubes

Instructions

Combine the wine, lemon juice, lemon zest and shallot in a small saucepan, season with a pinch of salt.

Bring to the boil and reduce the liquid to a third of its original volume.

While the sauce is reducing, bring some water to a simmer in a medium saucepan.

When the sauce has reduced, strain it into a glass or metal mixing bowl.

Place the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water, then add a cube of butter and whisk in to the sauce.

Continue adding the butter, cube-by-cube, whisking constantly until it is all combined and the sauce has thickened.

Season to taste with salt and cracked pepper and serve immediately with white fish, steamed greens and roasted potatoes.

Notes

Be careful not to split the sauce — if the mixture is too cold or too hot as you add the butter, it will not form a stable emulsion. Whisking in a bowl over simmering water provides a steady and indirect heat that makes it easier to stabilise. (You can also add a spoonful of cream before the butter to improve the stability.)

Buttery sauces also go well with steamed greens, in this case especially broccoli which loves a touch of lemon.